Covid-19 screening and testing in Fiji. Photo / Facebook
By RNZ
The Fiji government confirmed last night a daily record 13 deaths, taking the death toll to 98 - 96 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April.
Fiji recorded 1180 cases in the previous 24-hour period.
Health Secretary James Fong said five patients had received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while the rest were unvaccinated at the time of their deaths.
Fiji now has 13,610 positive people in isolation since this outbreak started in April.
Fong said seven more deaths of Covid-19 positive patients, but their deaths have been classified as non-covid deaths by their doctors.
"Doctors have determined that these deaths were caused by serious pre-existing medical conditions and not Covid-19.
"There have now been 98 deaths due to the virus in Fiji, with 96 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.
"We also have recorded 41 Covid-19 positive patients, who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted Covid; these are not classified as Covid-19 deaths."
There have been 388 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 13,610 active cases, Fong said.
He said there have been 17,444 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.
"We have recorded a total of 17,514 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 3,765 recoveries.
"There are nine more deaths currently under investigation. These will be discussed once investigations (including test results) and classifications are complete."
A total of 3,795 individuals were screened and 1068 swabbed at the ministry's stationary screening clinics in the last 24 hours bringing the cumulative total to 322,714 individuals screened and 55,408 swabbed to date.
Fong said the mobile screening teams had screened a total of 207 individuals and swabbed 290 in the last 24 hours.
"This brings our cumulative total to 716,965 individuals screened and 61,756 swabbed by our mobile teams to date.
"A total of 225,366 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 268,227 tested since testing began in March 2020."
Fong said 4407 tests had been reported for 16 July, with testing number data for one laboratory still pending for 15 July.
He said based on available testing numbers, the national seven-day daily test average is 3860 tests per day or 4.4 tests per 1000 population.
"The national 7-day average daily test positivity is 24 percent and continues on an upward trend."
The World Health Organisation's test positivity rate is at 5 per cent.
As of the 17 July, 393,095 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 78,624 have received their second doses, Fong said.
"This means that 67 percent of the target population have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 13.4 per cent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide."
"The 7-day average of new cases per day is 1000 cases per day or 1130 cases per million population per day. Average daily case numbers are increasing, together with cases of severe disease and deaths."
Fong said people could check the ministry's vaccine dashboard to find real-time data on first-dose and second-dose numbers at the national, divisional and sub-divisional levels.
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